Newsletter: Oct 15 – 19

It was wonderful seeing everyone after the week off and hearing how everyone spent their breaks! We had a very eventful and fun first week of the Session with welcoming new Eagles to the community, launching our Entrepreneurship Quest, and our Fall Olympics!

A very exciting beginning to the new Session as we welcome 5 new Eagles to our tribe! Warmest of welcome to Leeshane, Venchen, Jasmine, William, and Hayden, and their families. We are so excited to have you all with us! We jumped right in to begin the new week and session with new running partner groups. If you don’t know what a running partner is, make sure to ask your Eagle!

We are deep into Poetry during Writing Workshop for all 3 studios. In the Foundation studio, they finished up their Diamante poems and got started with Ballads. They are also writing Ballads of their favorite movies! In Navigator and Launch Pad, they are getting the opportunity to take a deep dive into poetry by studying a great poet, defining what makes a great poem, finding poems they love across different styles, and writing poetry in different styles.

Countdown to the business fair! Dec 1- save the date! We got our creative juices flowing this week by launching our Entrepreneurship project! Over the course of the next 5 week, the Eagles will put their product ideas to the test with each other- all while learning the ins and outs of running a business and discovering what kind of entrepreneur they are! This week, the foundation studio learned all about different kinds of entrepreneurs as well as started to figure out what motivates each one of them. In Navigator and Launch Pad, we explored various types of entrepreneurs, learned about a young entrepreneur who got her start at the Children’s Business Fair (and now is in Whole Foods!), and played some games to start discovering they kind of entrepreneur the are! Be sure to ask your Eagle what their project for the session is!

It was finally time for our Fall Olympics! Yay! The Eagles worked hard and tried their best in 5 different events… the mile/half mile, 50 yard dash, shot put, plank, and sit ups. The Eagles will do all these events again in the spring- and they can win medals based on their percent improvement! Basically, the Eagles only compete against themselves, working to get better at the events by practicing over course of year. We had a bagel party after the Olympics to celebrate all their hard work!

This week in History, the Foundation group continued our discussion about the beginnings of the universe and the big bang that emerged from ‘nothing’. They pondered and discussed what was before the Big Bang and what the early Universe was like, while getting to make their own beautiful swirling universe with shaving cream and food dye! They added elements (glitter) to their Universe as they learned about the life and death of stars, our distant relatives. The Navigators and LPers spent their week week studying the origin stories of ancient cultures; comparing, contrasting, and digging deeper into what kinds of questions we need to ask as we dive into Big History.

During our Friday “Current Events” group, The Navigators and Launch Padders discussed whether or not our country is divided now more than any other time in history. They explored the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights movement. We were extremely impressed with how well this group truly hears each other and uses our Rules of Engagement so well. They showed kindness, empathy, and extremely strong reasoning skills. In Foundation, the Eagles reviewed a recent science study and discussed how they would respond if a human-like robot had begged not to turn him off. This blossomed into a lively discussion on if robots can possess feelings, and on what makes humans different from robots. Their openness and enthusiasm for discussion created a wonderful and intriguing conversation closely tied to our question of the year. Ask your Eagle, what their thoughts on the question of the year is!

Eagles are continuing their projects in art class, learning about scaling and symbols to create self-portraits to represent themselves and their hero’s journey. This project’s artist focus is Frida Kahlo, who beautifully told her story through her self-portraits.

Our Foundation Eagles spent some time this week thinking about the badges they want to earn during the next few session- then can up with a game plan for how to earn those badges. We will be revisiting those plans next week and sending them home so your Eagle can share their plan with you!

We ended our week with some really fun team building exercises! We solved tangrams, built squzzles, and traversed a minefield! Love how much they all fully support each other! It is inspiring and warming to see how much the Eagles are bonding and actively looking to lift each other up!